Much like the wintertime western holidays, Chinese New Year is a time for families to gather.

Michael Chan, 30, of Hazleton said Chinese New Year, the biggest holiday of the year in China, is sort of like Thanksgiving and Christmas wrapped into one.

Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar, said Jane Ma, 44, Hazleton, and arrives in late January or early February in the Roman calendar. This year it falls on Jan. 31.

Also called Spring Festival, Chinese New Year celebrations begin on the eve of the holiday on the Chinese calendar and last into the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, which is the Lantern Festival, Ma said.

Though the actual celebration of Chinese New Year varies in different Chinese regions, Ma cited a few of the common customs, such as cleaning homes to rid them of old ill fortunes and decorating them with pictures of gods, poems and other symbols of happiness, longevity and good fortune.

Families welcome the new year together at midnight on New Year's Day and light firecrackers to drive away the old year's ill fortunes. They also greet relatives and friends with good blessings, host colorful parades that include the costumed dragon dance and lion dance, and hand out small red envelopes containing money to children, she said.

There is also the tradition of the family meal or feast on New Year's Eve. Today, Ma said, many families opt to eat the meal at a restaurant so they have more time with family.

It's a celebration centuries old and still honored by those of Chinese descent throughout the world, wherever they may be.

A holiday hike

Ma came to the United States in 1999 to study at a university and though thousands of miles away from her small hometown in Northern Sichuan Province, her traditions of Chinese New Year have always been near to her.

Her fondest memory of the celebration is from when she was about 7 years old and joined her entire family, including her grandmother, on a long hike to a relative's home. As a family they crossed rice and vegetable fields, climbing hills and bridges and traversing streams and a "little" river. When their journey concluded, they were given a warm welcome by the relatives they were visiting.

Together the family sat around the fireplace eating red oranges that day and Ma still remembers the fire lighting up their faces.

"That was a joyous moment for me. The color of the fire and the orange still lives fresh in my memory, so vivid, and it can still light me up today," Ma said.

On Chinese New Year's Day children receive new clothes, and Ma said the happiness of seeing her new clothes was "tremendous" because children at that time didn't have many chances to receive them.

Family dinner

Chan was born in New York and is a first-generation Chinese-American. His parents were both from Mainland China and he remembers the polite gestures made at his family dinner table for Chinese New Year.

Before they could begin eating, they would have to greet each other and ask their older relatives for permission to start the meal. Upon finishing the meal, he said, the children must thank the adults for the meal and ask if they can be excused from the dinner table.

The dinner table was packed so tightly with food that there was not much room for anything else, Chan said. They dined, and still do today, on soup, fish, chicken, dumplings and vegetables, Chan said from Five Star Chinese Restaurant, which he manages, in Hazle Township.

The staff at the restaurant recently prepared a traditional Chinese New Year meal to show those unfamiliar with the holiday what it looks like. Chan said that today, people are more curious about other religions and cultures, and he believes many young parents are looking at other cultures to find ways to nurture their children.

Graciously, Chan motions to the table, packed neatly with plates of food, and after he and his guests are seated, he smiles while proudly talking about his culture.

Among other things, Chan remembers the brightly colored fireworks illuminating the night sky during the celebration and reconnecting with family - his favorite parts of the holiday.

Christmas, too

Born in Taiwan and raised Buddhist, Christina Spencer of Mountain Top, said each year in the Chinese calendar is assigned an animal of the Chinese zodiac, and this coming year is the year of the horse.

Spencer, who teaches Chinese at MMI Preparatory School in Foster Township, recalls a "beautiful" meal with family and bringing tea and snacks to adults while they all waited for midnight together, playing games. New Year's Day, she said, is more serious, where families go to temple, worship and make offerings to the gods.

But she also remembers having a Christmas tree, citing the western and Christian influences in China. Spencer eventually converted to Catholicism and though some of the meaning of holidays celebrated in her Buddhist roots are now changed, she still honors the meaning of Chinese New Year.

"It's a time to remember how important your family is. So even though I'm not there and Buddhist anymore, the deep meaning, you still carry that with you," she said.

On the eve of the holiday, she still calls her family and still dines on traditional Chinese food, her favorite, Nian Gao, or sticky rice cake, a sweet dessert.

Spencer said each food served at the meal has meaning. Fish is never totally consumed but is eaten as a leftover, so that no one goes hungry in the new year, she said. Oranges signify good fortune, and rice cakes and noodles, longevity.

achristman@standardspeaker.com

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